A note to security: Even though $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] comes from the user, it's safe to assume its validity, as the "manipulation" takes place _before_ the actual file execution, meaning that the string _must_ have been valid enough to execute the file. Also, basename() is binary safe, so you can safely rely on this function.

return may be preferable to exit in certain situations, especially when dealing with the PHP binary and the shell.

I have a script which is the recipient of a mail alias, i.e. mail sent to that alias is piped to the script instead of being delivered to a mailbox. Using exit in this script resulted in the sender of the email getting a delivery failure notice. This was not the desired behavior, I wanted to silently discard messages which did not satisfy the script's requirements.

After several hours of trying to figure out what integer value I should pass to exit() to satisfy sendmail, I tried using return instead of exit. Worked like a charm. Sendmail didn't like exit but it was perfectly happy with return. So, if you're running into trouble with exit and other system binaries, try using return instead.

If you are using templates with numerous includes then exit() will end you script and your template will not complete (no </table>, </body>, </html> etc...). Rather than having complex nested conditional logic within your content, just create a "footer.php" file that closes all of your HTML and if you want to exit out of a script just include() the footer before you exit().

Note, that using exit() will explicitly cause Roxen webserver to die, if PHP is used as Roxen SAPI module. There is no known workaround for that, except not to use exit(). CGI versions of PHP are not affected.

A side-note for the use of exit with finally: if you exit somewhere in a try block, the finally won't be executed. Could not sound obvious: for instance in Java you never issue an exit, at least a return in your controller; in PHP instead you could find yourself exiting from a controller method (e.g. in case you issue a redirect).